Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Won't Run on a New Engine

Infinity Ward creative strategist Robert Bowling said on his Twitter account that creating a new engine for the next game in the Call of Duty series, presumably Modern Warfare 3, would be "counter productive."

Activision's Call of Duty series is currently one of the most profitable franchises in the gaming industry, generating a huge amount of profit with each iteration.

But most of this money hasn't really been invested in the technological progress of the franchise as a whole.

This doesn't mean series creator Infinity Ward wants to overhaul the graphics of its future games anytime soon, at least according to the creative strategist of the studio, Robert Bowling, who was asked on Twitter if the company was working on a new engine.

Bowling replied, saying, ""That would be counter productive. An engine takes years and years to develop and get right."

Since Call of Duty 2, back in 2005, all games in the series have run on the same engine developed by Infinity Ward, albeit with plenty of upgrades along the way, made either by the company or other Activision studios, including Treyarch.

This question comes at a time when Call of Duty's biggest rival franchise, Battlefield, has just presented the first gameplay footage of the upcoming Battlefield 3 title, powered by an all-new Frostbite 2 engine.

The new software was built from the ground up by Electronic Arts' DICE team, in order to take "animation, destruction, lighting, scale and audio to new heights."

The video was already met with critical acclaim, so it seems that the next Call of Duty game, probably Modern Warfare 3 from Infinity Ward, will face serious competition in terms of Battlefield 3.

Bowling later clarified his remarks, saying that while the base of the engine is largely the same, the Infinity Ward team will add quite a few new things on top of it for its upcoming game.

What do you think? Is the Call of Duty franchise right with sticking to its tried and true engine or should a new one be built in order to keep up with current technology? Share your input below.